A disk drive may include one or more head-gimbal assemblies that are appropriately mounted on what may be characterized as an actuator body (e.g., an individual actuator arm, an actuator body with one or more actuator arm tips extending therefrom). Each head-gimbal assembly generally includes a suspension, a flexure, and a slider. The suspension is mounted on the actuator body and is biased toward its corresponding data storage disk. The flexure is mounted on the suspension and desirably supports the slider relative its corresponding suspension. The slider of each head-gimbal assembly has at least one transducer (e.g., a read/write head) for exchanging information with its corresponding data storage disk. A flexure cable having a plurality of electrical traces is used to transmit signals to and receive signals from the read/write head of the slider.
The flexure and at least part of the flex cable may be integrated to define a single, multi-layer flexure assembly. One known configuration is a flexure assembly having a support layer (e.g., stainless steel), an intermediate insulator layer (e.g., polyimide), and an electrical trace layer. In the case where solder bump bonding is used to electrically interconnect the read/write head of the slider with one or more electrical traces, it is common for the bond pads associated with these electrical traces: 1) to be disposed over apertures or windows in both the support layer and insulator layer such that the bond pads are entirely un-supported; 2) to be disposed over holes or windows in the support and partially supported by only the insulator layer (not at all by the support layer), which is typically a thin, quite flexible structure; and 3) to be entirely supported by both the insulator and support layers. In the case where gold ball bonding is used to electrically interconnect the read/write head of the slider with the electrical trace assembly, it is common for the entirety of each of the bond pads to be supported by both the insulator and support layers. That is, the bond pads associated with the electrical layer are not disposed over any aperture or window formed in either of the insulator or support layers.
It would be desirable for a flexure assembly to accommodate both solder ball bonding and gold ball bonding for electrically interconnecting the read/write head of a disk drive slider, as well as any associated microactuator or slider positioner, with corresponding electrical traces.